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A Time in History (February 20-28)

FR. WILLIAM CARNEY was born at
Bayonne, New Jersey, USA in 1924. He died on February 21, 1973 in Jersey City,
after a series of operations for cancer of the throat. Fr. Bill, as he was
called, studied at St. Columban’s, Silver Creek [1942-43], St. Columban’s,
Bristol [1943-44], and St. Columban’s Seminary, Nebraska [1944-50]. He was
ordained priest in 1949. His first mission assignment was to Japan but this was
changed because of the big influx of Columbans into Japan due to the Korean
War. He was then appointed to the Philippines. In 1955 he returned to the U.S.
for promotion work. He was appointed Superior of St. Columban’s, San Francisco,
in 1964 and in 1969 he became Spiritual Director at St. Columban’s, Oconomowoc,
Minnesota. Fr. Bill is buried at Holy
Name Cemetery, Jersey City.

February 22

FR. COLM BRADY was born in Granard,
County Longford, Ireland in 1911. He died in a Manila hospital on February 22, 1977.
Fr. Colm received his secondary education
at St. Mel’s College, Longford. He came to Dalgan in 1930 and was ordained
priest there in 1936. Appointed to China, he spent nine years in Hanyang where
the difficult war conditions affected his health. He was appointed to promotion
work in the U.S. and worked in the Los Angeles area. In 1953 he began a new
missionary career in the Philippines and worked in Mindanao for the next 23
years. Fr. Colm is buried at Manila.

February 23

FR. THOMAS CONVERY was born at
Trenton, New Jersey, USA in 1915. He died on February 23, 2007 at Silver Silver
Creek Nursing Home, Bristol, Rhode Island. Having gone through the Columban
seminary system – Milton, Silver Creek, Omaha – Fr. Tom was ordained in 1940
and appointed to teach in Silver Creek for a year and then did vocation work
until 1949. He served as Dean at Milton while doing studies at Boston College. He received his M.Ed. from Loyola University. In 1951 he was assigned to the Philippines
where he served as superior in Zambales and Vicar General to Bishop Byrne. He
was a delegate to three General Chapters. Appointed to the U.S. in 1972, he was
Superior in Bayside and afterwards in Bristol. He moved to Omaha in 1980 and
served there as Superior and Retreat Master until 1983 when he moved to
Edgemont, Pennsylvania, USA. He ‘retired’ to Bristol in 1994. Known as a man of
great energy, deeply spiritual and totally dedicated, Fr. Tom is buried at Gate
of Heaven Cemetery, E. Providence, Rhode Island, USA.

+ EDWARD J. GALVIN was born at Newcestown,
County Cork, Ireland on St. Columban’s Day, November 23, 1882. He died of
leukemia at Dalgan on 23 February 1956. He was ordained priest at St. Patrick’s
College, Maynooth, Ireland in 1909 for his home diocese of Cork. He spent his first three years as a priest on
loan to the diocese of Brooklyn, USA. While there, in January 1912, he met
Father Fraser who was en route back to China. In February 1912, Fr. Ned Galvin
left Brooklyn for China. He went first to Toronto, Canada to join Fr. Fraser
and together they travelled from Vancouver to Shanghai on the “Empress of
India”. He lived and worked with French Vincentians in Zhejiang [1912-16]. In
1916 he returned to Ireland to found the Society. He met Fr. John Blowick for
the first time on September 4, 1916 at Fr. Tom Ronayne’s lodgings in Monkstown,
County Dublin, Ireland. Permission was obtained on October 10, 1916 from the
Irish hierarchy to establish a “mission house for the training of Irish
missionaries for China”. After a brief
period promoting the Society in Ireland, Fr. Ned left (1917) for the U.S. to
establish the Society there. He returned to Ireland to lead the first band of
Columbans to China (1920). From his
arrival in China to his expulsion in 1952, Fr. Ned would have experienced some
good years but the lows predominated – the Japanese invasion, a corrupt Chinese
government, violence, banditry often directed against missionaries, local
warlords, floods, drought....He survived the rigours of World War II but there
was no let-up. In 1947, he wrote “the
pep has gone from me; the war was bad but post-war problems are the devil
entirely. We have no longer any rights, we have no power, we have no guns, we
have no protection, but God is still in Heaven”. Expelled, he returned to Ireland in 1953 and
retired to Dalgan. He is buried there.

Bsp Edward Galvin and Fr. John Blowick

Founders of the Missionary Society of St.
Columban

February 26

FR. PATRICK HYNES was born in 1925 at
Tullaroan, County Kilkenny, Ireland. He
died at Dalgan on February 26, 2004, having retired there in 1996. He had been
in ill health for several years. Having completed his secondary studies at St.
Kieran’s College, Kilkenny, Fr. Pat came to Dalgan in 1943 and was ordained
there in 1949. Assigned to the Philippines in 1950 he spent the next forty six
years in a number of parishes in Negros. “Quiet and direct with a droll sense
of humour, he was much loved wherever he served.” Fr. Pat is buried at Dalgan.

FR. TIMOTHY McKIERNAN was born in
Kiltubrid, County Leitrim, Ireland in 1907. He died in Morong Church,
Philippines, as a result of an accident on February 26, 1941. Fr. Tim’s family emigrated to the U.S. where
he received his early education before going to St. Columban’s, Silver Creek,
in 1927. He was ordained priest at St. Columban’s, Nebraska, USA in 1939.
Assigned to the Philippines, he was there less than a year when he was
tragically killed. He is buried at Malate, Manila.

February 28

FR. JAMES O. HUGHES was born at County
Wexford, Ireland in 1920. He died in Nottingham, England, on February 28, 1987.
Fr. Jim received his secondary education
at St. Peter’s College, Wexford, before entering Dalgan. He was ordained priest
in 1944. At the end of World War II he went to Huzhou, China. He left China in
1952 and went to the Philippines where he worked until 1972. He returned to the
Irish Region and did pastoral work in Ireland and England. His last appointment
was as chaplain to the Home run by the Sisters of Nazareth in Nottingham. He is
buried at Dalgan.